On the last day of DDD, took place Bruno Senune’ solo – repercutir em sinfonia, as part of the DDD OUT programme, in Jardim do Morro, Vila Nova de Gaia. This piece involved ten young people, nine of whom are current students, and a former student of Balleteatro, Porto. 

First of all, I would like to clarify that I have been developing my work as a contemporary dance teacher in several schools in Portugal, namely Balleteatro, which allows me a direct work with children and teenagers. This also allows me to follow young people on their academic path and in their search for work in the sector,  when they want to build their professional careers in dance and performing arts (and consequently a way of life). Balleteatro also has the mission of being a centre for study performing arts, focused on teaching and artistic creation, enabling both these types of experiences to its students. All these factors and paths have been a huge learning, and come to demonstrate how important education by art, critical thinking, reflection and resilience are. 

From what I saw and heard from these teenagers during the construction of this show, which lasted about two weeks, and from what I know of each one of them , this was an experience of responsibility and commitment - working in a professional context, where a choreographer, who is not a teacher, directs the work and challenges them in a context of collective creative process. This participation implies, from the beginning, relationships with other people during an participatory process: participation is action, but also connection. This participation, in particular, activated new stimuli – discovering a new working methodology, testing and incorporating a new physical language, playing a musical instrument and adapting to the public space. In this work, which started from a Bruno Senune’ solo, presented  in 2019, the interpreters had to seek Senune’s physicality and make it also a little bit theirs – feel it, memorize it and interpret it. 

In these contexts of professionalization and contact with the dynamics of the city and the labour market, also enhanced by the school itself, the door is also opened for other people to meet the interpreters "on stage" and vice versa. The door opens to a world without evaluations and without marks. The door opens to a world that flows outside the school context, to a world of contacts and interpersonal networks. The door also opens to a world of fears, issues and frustrations. And each interpreter, with their own wills and potentials, takes advantage of all this learning, in the light of their own personal paths in relation to dance. Some refer to commitment, others to discovery and others to relief, yet. They feel like professionals because they are treated as such: there is no expectation of the teacher who works with them throughout an entire year, and they feel that their abilities are put to the test again. Bruno worked with them in the creation of this significant experience of participation and artistic process. And when I talk about participation, here, I’m referring to a participation that involves social, family and personal perspectives, with its constraints and potentialities. Each of these young persons, aged between 16 and 24 years, experienced and internalized this process in their own way, depending on their age and desires. This work experience was also sustained in the voices, bodies and paths of the participating dancers, through their plural, diverse and curious youths.